R-E-S-P-E-C-T: Find out what it means to me

The idea that there is anything that black people can do to stop white people from thinking we are violent criminals is ridiculous and I know that now. I didn't always know that.Throughout my life if I heard a news story about a particularly violent crime I always hoped they weren’t black. If I heard about people doing something crazy or stupid in public I hoped they weren’t black. If they turned out to be black then I thought “see that’s what makes white people think we’re all criminals or stupid.” But that’s not what makes them think that. What makes them think that is for centuries in this country white people first enslaved and dehumanized us and when they couldn’t do that anymore they criminalized us. It is so ingrained in the psyche of Americans that black people are violent criminals that even black people think so. It is why some black people think if they are respectable enough, professional enough, successful enough, earn enough money, educated enough, then racism will not follow us. If we speak politely and follow orders then the police won’t beat and kill us. But it is not our behavior that causes them to think of us that way, it is the very presence of our black skin that is enough to be seen as a threat to others so there is NOTHING WE can do to make them think of us as non-threatening fully formed and flawed human beings.

Every race of people has committed acts of violence against each other throughout human history. For as long as humans have existed, we have committed violence against each other. Black people are no more violent than white people or latinx people or indigenous people. There is no phenomenon of black on black crime. People commit crimes generally within their neighborhood and guess what America is still segregated. Here is how it works black people tend to live around other black people thereby committing crimes against said black people. White people tend to live around other white people therefore they tend to commit crimes against other white people.( FBI 2018 Crime Report-Homicide in the murders of 3,315 white people the offender was white in 2,677 of those cases or 80.7% of the time. Out of the 2,925 black people murdered the offender was black in 2,600 cases or 88.8% of the time.) Based on the way it’s been reported in the media over the years you would think almost 100% of black people kill each other and you wouldn’t even think about how often white people kill other white people. 

Now the rate for black people is a little higher than that of white people which is due to housing segregation. Black people tend to live in more segregated neighborhoods than white people so they are more likely than white people to live among each other. When black people protest after the murder of a black person by a white person there is always someone who says some variation of “black people keep killing each other so why are they upset about white people killing them?”. This is a racist perversion of the facts, first of all most white people are killed by other white people just like most black people are killed by other black people. Black people don’t kill other black people because they are violent by nature or more violent than white people, they do it because due to redlining, housing discrimination and white flight they live in mostly black areas and people tend to kill people they know and are close to.

So here goes the cycle of racism: racist housing policies and practices → black people are segregated so when they commit crimes it is against other black people → those crimes are used as justification for extra policing of those black areas → cops beat and kill black people → protests by black people → “black on black crime” retort → white people move out of areas once black people move in out of fear of crime → we are right back at the beginning of the cycle.

So now that we know that black people aren't more violent than white people let's talk about the ways some black people think we can combat the violent stereotype. There are the prosperity prophets who think the more money we as black people make the more power we have and the more respected we are as a people. Let's take sports as an example because that's an area where a fair amount of the richest black people earned their name and money. Lebron James, one of the most famous and richest athletes in the world had the word nigger spray painted on his house. In the NBA before they implemented the dress code fans and commentators routinely called the players THUGS for wearing baggy clothes and having tattoos. I am sure just about every black celebrity or politician or prominent businessperson can tell you about racism they’ve encountered from micro-aggressions to being called racist names to everything above and in between.Their money, power and influence hasn't helped them individually escape racism and it hasn't helped black people collectively be treated as human beings.

Oh you think education is going to save you. Do y’all remember how Michelle Obama was treated when she was First Lady. This Ivy League educated woman was compared to a monkey and talked about like a dog. Sure she was in a high profile position but if you don’t think other educated black women and men don’t experience these types of things then you are incredibly naïve. As an educated black woman (Bachelor's in Journalism and a Law degree) I always have the “angry black woman” in the back of my mind and I make a conscious and unconscious effort at times to not speak up about things. I have ignored many a statement or slight because I didn’t want to get that label. I didn’t want Karen in the office to go to HR about me because she thought I was being hostile or aggressive. I am sure just about every educated, successful, professional black woman in this country can attest to suppressing the urge to go off or going off in a professional way and still getting called into the office because Karen or Chad complained. A white person and a black person can say the exact same thing but it comes off as aggressive from the black person but assertive from the white person. Our very skin is the problem to them so how do we not offend their sensibilities?

To the black people that I see saying the current protestors shouldn’t loot or riot or use violence because it makes us look like animals or it confirms what white people think of us or because that’s not the way to bring change I say the following to you. If they already see us as animals what difference does it make if we peacefully stand with signs or throw rocks. The police showed up with tear gas and tanks and riot gear. The police started throwing tear gas canisters when things were peaceful. They were ready for war before we even did anything so how is using violence against them harming our reputation as people. Our reputation is already that we are violent criminals. Nothing we can do can change that. It is on them to change their minds. 

As far as the violence of the protests confirming what they think of us, they will think we are violent regardless of what we do. They will use those stereotypes to oppress us. Just take the example of the black man in NYC who was bird watching and asked a white woman to put her dog on a leash, her first recourse was to call police and say that a black man threatened her. She knew what that would mean to the police and she knew what could happen to him if the police showed up. The police don’t stop to ask the black man or woman where they went to school or how much money they earn before police start shooting so please stop with that mindset that there is any level of respectability you can achieve that will stop racism. There is no level of respectability a black person can achieve that will exempt them from racism. The former leader of the free world, Barack Obama was treated like shit throughout his presidency and there is supposedly no more respectable position in the world then President of the United States.

If violent protest is not the way, then what is the way to bring change? When we knelt during the national anthem we were called unpatriotic sons of bitches and told that’s not the way to protest and Nothing Changed. When we have made songs and music videos asking the police to stop killing us (a la the Formation video by Beyonce) we were called militant anti-Americans and Nothing Changed. Now that there are protests that have at times been violent you say that is not the way. THEN WHAT IS THE WAY? When in the history of this country or hell the history of the world has systemic change occurred without violence? There needs to be systemic change in this country to reform/abolish policing as we know it, to reform the criminal justice system, education system, housing system, health care system, public health system, etc. and how is all of that going to happen completely peacefully? How are the people and companies that benefit from those systems going to give up their power without being forced?

White people get to be fully flawed humans. White people kill other people. They make ignorant statements. They destroy property just for the sake of destroying it. They say hateful things. They do stupid things that harm people and property. Yet when those white individuals do those things they are treated as INDIVIDUALS. All white people are not labeled as violent or stupid or destructive because of the acts of the relative few. However, when black people do those same things they are not treated as individuals. They are treated as Black People who are violent, ignorant and destructive. We are not allowed to be flawed. We are not allowed to have some knuckleheads among us that do dumb shit. No, we are all lumped together and the onus is put on us to be damn near perfect in order to not prove the stereotype. But guess what, those stereotypes aren’t our fault and nothing we do or say can prove or disprove those stereotypes, history and the present has shown us that. We didn’t create the stereotypes. White people created them and perpetuated them generation after generation until they are ingrained in the fabric of America. Some black people feel the way to combat this is to be respectful, educated, professional, non-violent and then they will see us as people and stop killing and subjugating us. But it hasn’t worked. And it will never work because it is not on us to stop these stereotypes. It is on white people to recognize they exist and make a conscious effort to change their thinking then to work to change the systems that perpetuate those racist biases and stereotypes.

Everything people chastise black people for doing white people have done and will continue to do. The problem is RACISM which infects every aspect of our society. Until every person accepts that, looks internally to examine what racist beliefs they hold and puts a plan in action to change every major system then all of this (waves hands around in disgust) will continue. Fuck respectability. Black people are justifiably fed the fuck up and just like any other human in history they deserve to express that anger in any way they see fit.